


A Wound In The Force

by Altruistic_Computer



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Knights of the Old Republic (Video Games)
Genre: Dark Side Ending (Star Wars), Darth Nihilus as Eldritch Horror (Star Wars), Gen, The Dark Side of the Force (Star Wars), The Force as Eldritch Horror (Star Wars), sort of canon compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:34:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27314857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Altruistic_Computer/pseuds/Altruistic_Computer
Summary: Darth Nihilus might be dead, but the echoes which ate him are not. When Visas Marr takes his mask, she finds out more about why he became what he did and what might happen to the Exile.
Relationships: The Jedi Exile & Visas Marr, Visas Marr & Darth Nihilus
Comments: 5
Kudos: 9
Collections: High Council Bounty 10/20





	A Wound In The Force

The remainders of Darth Nihilus fell to the paper-like layers of rusted metal and dried blood on the floor. It was only a shell now, like the shattered bones of the ship he had travelled in. Shadows like tears spread across the ground, almost like he had felt remorse or guilt or anything but the endless hunger which had consumed him.

She had to see. She had to know that the being who died once, on the shattered world of Malachor V, was dead once again. She had to know that the man who had caused all that pain, all the deaths, was gone.

But she also needed to know what he was. What could a being who had consumed himself with his own hunger be? When she saw him through the Force, all she saw was darkness. She had to… see…

"Visas… what are you doing?" The Exile looked at her as she walked over to the corpse.

"I have to see. With my eyes, with the Force. I have to know," she said. She continued walking, in an unnervingly calm way.

"Then bring me the mask," he replied.

"What the hell are you doing?" Canderous asked with a look of incredulity. The Exile looked at him sharply, with those uncanny amber eyes. He stayed quiet. Now was not the time for a fight.

 _As my feet walk from the ashes of Katarr, I shall not fear, for in fear, lies death._ She paced forwards, lightsaber gripped in her hand. _I will not fear. I will not die. I will not be blinded to the galaxy any longer._

The mask was old, cold metal. It felt like death and corruption, to the point where she almost wished she could just leave it behind. His physical body was long gone, eaten away by the echoes of the Mass Shadow Generator. But even then, the echoes were still there.

All she could see was the dark side itself. Fear, anger, hate, greed, jealousy, passion. Hunger. A wound, and one so powerful that it had destroyed itself. When his very presence had refused to die, his spirit had been sustained in his mask and armour and now what was once a man was only an echo. She almost felt pity for the being who had destroyed her homeworld.

Because it came back to where it always did. A graveyard world and a fleet of dead ships. A scene of corpses, pain and death. An echo, the echo which always followed. A decision made which would cause destruction. A familiar man, a tall man with already greying hair, wielding a yellow lightsaber. The Exile.

Beyond that, another man. Very tall, dark haired. A soldier, a Force-user but not a Jedi. One who had seen the battles, the deaths and one who had lost almost everything. One who had few memories of living a normal life, even on the small, unnoticeable place on the Outer Rim he barely even thought of as home. He had had no loyalty; he had tried to save soldiers who were long gone even when he was ordered not to.

When the echo had found him, he had given into the pain. Unlike the Exile, he had not been the most powerful in the Force. He had been allowed to join their cause, and fight, lightsaber in hand but they did not consider him one of them.

She saw him collapse to the ground as the planet began to fall apart. He hadn’t seen the side of the Jedi before the fall, she knew he would have no control – surely he would die.

She could hear the echoes of the day he had been destroyed and she could only be horrified at what had happened to him.

The pain of the others had been what had started it. Trapped on the dead planet, the emptiness had begun to take over him. His grief had become his hunger. He had eaten his way through the survivors’ life force until they could barely notice that they were dying. The more he consumed, the more his hunger took over.

His body had rotted and he had hardly noticed. He was a wound, a force of nature, not a person. He had become Nihilus, Lord of Hunger to survive, and it had killed him. When his body was truly lost, he trapped himself in armour, like the being she knew and feared, and became nothing.

"What did you see?" She snapped back to reality as the Exile walked over from her, taking the mask from her hand.

"Things that people should not see," she replied. It was all she could say. How could she tell him what he could have become, what he was becoming?

"Was it enough?"

"Yes. It was enough. The death of my homeworld will always have its place within me, but it no longer dictates my future. You are my master now, and I shall follow you wherever you walk. My path is at an end," she said.

"Then this ship should die, finally," he responded.

"Yes, it should."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! What did you think?


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